Creating Space Between Us
by ChasingGhosts
Summary: “God Troy! You can’t just climb up my balcony and sing to me, and hope that everything will all be okay! You can’t! It just doesn’t work that way, it’s not that simple!” Troy&Gabriella Oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** Clearly I don't own any of the HSM characters, and all that jazz. If I did I would have made Troy and Gabriella kiss at least once in the movie, and I might have made that locker room scene with Troy topless a lot longer than it was.

**Author's Note**: This story is probably a little different to most of what I've seen around but yeah, the thought of seeing an angry Gabriella kind of excited me, and this popped out as a product of that. Anyway, give it a go, and let me know what you think about it. Obviously Troy/Gabriella because there is no other way, and it's a one-shot.

On with the story!

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There was a loud bang as a picture frame smashed against the wall, the glass shattering into a hundred pieces on instant contact. It fell onto the floor with a loud thud as it hit the wooden floor board, glass pieces surrounding it. The once perfect picture now torn and broken, just like the two people in the picture.

Gabriella stood in the middle of her now messy room. She had no idea what had come over her, one second she couldn't feel anything, just emptiness, the next thing she knew she was throwing things around her room in an uncontrollable rage. It wasn't until she had thrown the picture of them together that was able to stop. Slowly she walked over to the corner of her room where the broken frame lay. She picked it up carefully, wiping away the shards of broken glass. It was a picture of her and Troy, taken about two years ago, during her first year at East High. She remembered it as the day Troy had won the championship basketball game against West High, the day she and Taylor had won the first round of the Scholastic Decathlon, and the day Troy and her had sung together in front of the whole school, cause everyone to break free of their cliques and do what they wanted. A faint smile appeared across her face at the memory of that day. In the picture their faces were only inches apart, both beaming with complete happiness as they looked at each other. The picture had been unknowingly taken by her mother, who had given it to Troy, who had in turn given it to her as a gift on their one month anniversary. She loved this picture. She _had_ loved this picture. But looking down at it again now, she could feel another burst of anger surge from within her. She let out a small sardonic laugh and dropped the frame, and walked towards her bed, flopping down gracelessly.

What had happened to her? This wasn't her. This wasn't the girl she was. She was the girl with the shy smile, and that twinkle in her eye who was constantly laughing. She didn't get _this_ angry, not ever. And yet, looking around her room again, she had become the girl who trashed her room in complete anger. And then suddenly she was crying, warm tears were flowing from her brown eyes down her cheeks. Her makeup was running, and she knew she should probably get a tissue, but she couldn't make her body move. So she just continued to lay there and cry. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She wasn't supposed to be lying on her bed crying, was supposed to be been happy. _They_ should have been happy. And yet, she couldn't help but think about how messed up everything was, how far away from happiness they actually were.

Troy had been acting weird for weeks now; he'd forget that they had plans to study after school, or a date. At first she blamed it all on all the stress he was going through. The basketball season was wrapping up soon and the championship was coming up of course he'd forget their plans opting to practise more. But then the championship came and went, and despite the fact that they had won, Troy was still acting off around her. Then it wasn't just Troy forgetting their plans, he began making excuses as to why he couldn't spend time with her, or he'd run off suddenly when they were alone. It was as if he was scared to be alone with her now. She just couldn't figure it out, this wasn't Troy at all. Then one day whilst she was in the bathroom she'd overheard these girls talking about that damn blond villainous cheerleader, who after two years still felt the need to constantly throw herself at Troy every chance she got, literally. They said they'd seen Troy standing extremely close to her, whilst she laughed at something he'd said. Straight after she heard that, she'd searched for Troy, it wasn't that she didn't trust Troy, she did, it was the cheerleader she didn't trust. That girl had made it clear from the start that she wanted Troy, and that she'd stop at nothing to get him. She looked for him for ages that day, called him a few times too, but no sign of him anywhere.

And then the doubt started to creep into her mind… It would explain why he was so off around her… No, he wouldn't. Troy would never cheat on her, or anyone, that just wasn't Troy. She convinced herself that it couldn't, wouldn't be that, and that there was another reason. But after that day, it was like Troy had completely disappeared, she didn't see him in between classes, and he hadn't called her. She was definitely getting worried now, she even went so far as to ask Coach Bolton, but he'd just said that Troy was really busy. Then after a week of not seeing him, she finally spotted him with, and with that cheerleader again no less. And that's when all the anger had begun, and she had turned her room into a bomb site. Softly touching her face, she realised her tears had subsided, and all that was left was a trail of salty streaks down her cheeks.

Suddenly there was a soft knock against her balcony door. Thinking it was just the wind, she didn't bother to turn around, not having the energy to do so. Another knock came, louder this time. Dismissing the sound again, she lay still. Then another knock came, this time, she could faintly hear her name being called too.

"Gabi? Gabriella? Look I know you don't want to speak to me, but please open the door." She knew that voice anywhere, it was _him._ Slowly turning her head towards her door, she found Troy standing there; hands shoved into his pockets, shoulders slumped. He looked just as miserable as she felt. She just stared at him for a moment, not having any intention of letting him in, she just wanted to lie here and wallow in her own misery, was that too much to ask?

"Gabi, please." His voice sounded so desperate as he pleaded with her. If he fell onto his knees right now and began to grovel, she wouldn't be surprised.

She continued to stare at him. Her brain was telling her to turn away, to stop looking at that face that once caused her to break into an uncontrollable grin, to stop looking at his eyes. _Those eyes._ She knew would be her downfall if she continued to look into them. But a part of her also ached for him. Wanting to do nothing more than just run into his arms and let him hold her, and make all the pain go away.

Deciding that it was probably better to get the talking over and done with before another week of silence between them passed, she sat up ever so slowly, wiping at her cheeks, trying to hide the fact that she had been crying, and walked towards the door. When her hand reached the handle she halted, looked at him once more before slowly pushing open the door.

Troy let out a deep breath that he hadn't known he was holding, and breathed out a long sigh of relief. She had opened the door that had to be a good sign. Taking another deep breath he tried to convince himself that he could do this. He'd done it before, he could do it again. Here goes_…_

Gabriella watched him carefully as he stood there, breathing in and out, waiting for him to say something. She was waiting for him to start apologising, grovelling too maybe, but instead he was singing.

"_I'm sorry that I hurt you  
it's something I must live with everyday  
And all the pain I put you through  
I wish that I could take it all away  
and be the one who catches all your tears."_

With that final line, Troy stepped forward, and gently reached his hand out to her cheek and tried to wipe away the last remnants of her tears. But at the last second Gabriella stepped back and turned away from him. She was standing with her back towards him now, and Troy had no idea what to do. What the hell did this all mean? But he didn't have long to think about it before Gabriella started talking, or rather yelling at him.

"Jesus Troy! You can't just climb up my balcony and sing to me, and hope that everything will all be okay! You can't! It just doesn't work that way, it's not that simple!" She could feel the anger building again. All the angry thoughts that had been going around in her head all started to come to mind, and she was struggling to figure out which ones she actually wanted to voice. Instead she let out an angry "Argh," stopped pacing and flopped back down on her bed, breathing heavily.

Unsure of what had just happened, or what to do Troy just continued to stand there. That wasn't Gabriella; _his_ Gabriella never got this angry. But then again, he had stuffed up big time.

"Troy, what's going on with you?" She breathed out softly, her voice sounding completely different to what it had just moments ago. "You've been acting weird for weeks now, missing dates, randomly running off when we're alone, making excuses to not spend time with me." She paused for a moment, and he heard her take in a deep breath. "And now you're singing to me on my balcony, after I haven't heard or seen you in a week."

Troy sighed, he knew she'd notice it eventually, even a blind person would have noticed by now that he had been really distant in recent weeks. He looked around her messy room, spotting her overturned desk chair, pulled it upright and sat down. This was going to be a while.

"I knew you'd figure it out." He said simply, still unsure of where to start.

"Well it wasn't like you really tried to hide it."

"Yeah, I guess so."

The fact that this conversation was going nowhere and fast began to annoy her. He was here for a reason, why couldn't he just spit it out? "Troy, you came here to talk, and I would really like it if you did, cause if not, then I'd rather you leave, I'm not particularly in the mood for awkward silences."

Yeah, this definitely wasn't his Gabriella. But if he wanted her back, he needed to do this. "Right. Okay where to begin? First off, I'm sorry. Really sorry. For everything. For the way I've been acting lately, and blowing you off so much. And I know that sorry really doesn't make up for it, but right now that's all I can say."

"You could tell me why you did all of it anyway. Maybe then I could get over this whole thing. I mean, you haven't spoken to me in a week and there was everything before that too, so I'm just going to assume that this is your break up visit?" He looked up from the floor when she said this. He hadn't actually wanted to break up with her, wasn't that much obvious from the song?

"No actually, the complete opposite in fact. I came here to tell the girl that I love that I made this huge mistake and to possibly convince her to take me back." He stopped and watched her carefully.

Gabriella was all ears now, he still loved her? But? What in the world had gone on in past few weeks then? She sat up, now intrigued at what he had to say. "So? Are you finally going to tell me what's been going on in that head of yours then?"

It was now or never. Here goes. "I know I've been acting weird lately, and I guess it all started with all that college talk that's been going on lately. The guys and I were all on the changing room after basketball practise and somehow had brought up the topic of where we'd all like to go. Zeke was saying how he didn't really want to play college ball, and mentioned something about some famous cooking school overseas, and how he'd miss Sharpay when he went. Naturally Chad started to get on his back about not playing ball and all that. Saying how it would be a waste of all Zeke's talent to go be a cook. Anyway, somehow it got back to me, and Chad had asked me where I was planning on going. I remember straight away answering with, "Wherever Gabi is planning on going, I'm going.""

He looked up at her, trying to gage her reaction. She didn't react at all, except, he could now see that familiar look in her eye. That twinkle. He continued, "The guys all then started to comment on how serious we'd gotten, and how they never expected me to be the guy to follow the girl." He paused again, and this was where it was going to get hard. "And then it really hit me, that we'd been together for two years, and that without a doubt in my mind, I wanted to be with you, wherever that was going to be. And that's when I started to freak out. I began to second guess everything. Was I really ready to follow you anywhere?"

Gabriella's heart broke that tiny bit more, and she could feel more tears coming on. Why was he saying this if he really wanted her back?

Troy could see the beginnings on tears, but he needed to get this out, she needed to know. He got up from the chair and began to slowly pace around the room. "And that's what started it all. I started to think about it all, how right being with you felt, and how I could actually see a future with you, with the kids and the dog, and that clichéd white picket fence. And as much as I could see that all happening with you, I guess, a got a little scared." He paused, giving Gabriella a chance to let it all sink in. "It's just, I'm a guy, and we're not supposed to be thinking those things, and especially not when we're still in high school. So I freaked out. I started to forget about out dates, and went to go practise some more basketball with the guys, and I kept telling myself that all my nerves were just because of the championship. But then we won, and the feeling still hadn't gone away. And then I realised that it was because of the fact that I didn't want to screw us up that I was so nervous, so I became all distant and started to avoid you, which only ended up in me messing up the thing I wanted most. You." Troy sighed flopping back onto the chair. Finally, it was all out in the air.

Gabriella's mind was reeling. So he did love her. And he wanted a future with her? Kids and all? She took a breath, trying to take it all in. She definitely had not expected this. "So you didn't want to break up with me?" She questioned her voice small. Troy shook his head in reply. "You just got freaked out?" A nod this time. "And you can see us together. In the future. With kids."

"Yep. That about sums it up." He still wasn't sure what she was feeling, despite the fact that he could almost always read her like a book, these past weeks she had slowly shut him out. Not that he could blame her, this was all his fault.

"Wow." There was a silence. He watched her, she just sat there. Maybe he should just leave? Maybe he'd freaked her out too by all this?

"Troy, had it ever occurred to you, that maybe you weren't the only one having those thoughts? That I was just as freaked out as you?" He looked up at her in slight disbelief. He wasn't the only one? She had never shown any signs of it, she looked just as happy and carefree as she always did.

"I wasn't?"

Gabriella gave a slight laugh at this. "Why didn't you just tell me? It would have saved us all this trouble."

He hadn't heard her laugh in a while, he grinned. "I was scared. And I didn't want to scare you too. You might not have had the reaction I wanted. But, you're right, I should have said something. I screwed up and I'm sorry. So do you forgive me?"

Gabriella rolled off her bed and walked towards him, stopping right in front of him. "You know, after all this crap you've put me through, I could say no, and throw you out onto the balcony and leave you there to freeze." Troy's eyes got big at the thought of that happening. She laughed. "But, Troy Bolton, you're the only guy that can make my heart race when I see you, and make my breath hitch when you smile at me. Because you Troy Bolton, are the only guy for me."

Troy's grin grew even more. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." A grin just as wide on Troy's appeared across Gabriella's face, as he grabbed both her hands and pulled her towards him so she landed on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him and breathed in his scent. "God I missed you. You have no idea." She leaned back and looked him in the eyes, "But Troy, you've got to talk to me okay? I really don't want another repeat of this last month or so okay? I don't think I could handle it again."

"From now on I'll tell you everything. Except, I dunno, do you want me to tell you all about those guy things I feel about you? Cause, erm, there's some things I'd like to keep to myself." This caused another laugh to emit form Gabriella's lips and he could feel her body vibrate from it.

"Those things you can keep to yourself." She said in between giggles. Troy looked into her eyes, there it was, that sparkle was back again. _His_ Gabi was back. He continued to smile at her whilst she giggled. Then he leaned in and kissed her on the lips, causing her to stop, and with a smile on her face, began to kiss him back. The kiss portraying all the love that he felt for her, in an attempt to show her how sorry he really was for everything. After the kiss she leaned her forehead against his, grinning wildly. "Hmm. Yeah, I definitely missed you." She leaned in and kissed him again. They got lost in the kisses, and in the process Gabriella shifted her weight against Troy, which caused him to lose his footing, and for both of them to fall off the chair, Gabriella falling on top of Troy. Gabriella broke into another fit of giggles, and Troy just grinned. It was good to see her smile again, to hear her laugh, to just have her back. She noticed him just looking at her. "Hey Lunkhead Basketball boy, what'chu grinning about?"

"Just you." He said simply, reaching up and giving her a quick peck on the lips, and made a move to get up. After getting up, then helping Gabriella get up herself, he looked around the room properly. "Nice room you keep here Montez. What in the world happened here?"

"What can I say Bolton? You invoke feelings in me that I didn't know I had." She replied cheekily, sticking out her tongue at him.

Noticing the broken photo frame laying over in the corner, Troy walked over and picked it up. Brushing his fingers over the picture, he smiled fondly at the memory. Gabriella wrapped her arms around him from behind, and looked at the picture as well. "I guess I'll need to get you a replacement for this one then." He turned around and wrapped his arms around her waist so that they were facing each other. "So what do you say, after we get this room of yours all cleaned up and back to normal, we go to dinner. I think I still owe you that dinner and surprise I promised you weeks ago, and maybe a few more dinners on top of that."

Another laugh came from Gabriella's mouth, "A few would be an understatement."

"Well maybe, if you're lucky I'll get you dessert too. Now let's get this room back in order." He gave her another quick peck, before moving away from her, beginning to clean up her room. The two moved about the room in a comfortable silence, Troy knowing exactly where things were supposed to be placed. After they were done Gabriella let out a satisfied breath, glad to have all that mess cleaned up. "Finally!" Troy claimed, "Now, if we ever get in more trouble again, please don't trash your room, it takes forever to clean up."

"Oh tell me about it. This is why keeping my room clean is so much better, having to clean up takes up way too much time. And now I'm hungry. Let's go eat." Gabriella grabbed a jacket from her closet before turning to Troy. "Ready to go?"

He grabbed her hand and laced her fingers with his, "Yeah, just one question though. What in the world caused you to totally demolish your room like that?! I mean, you said before that it was me, but I haven't seen you at all in a week, unless your room has been in this state all week?"

"Oh, well I saw you with that darn cheerleader. You know the blonde one? Britney?" Gabriella scrunched up her nose at the thought of her.

Troy grinned amused by her jealousy. "Someone's a little bit jealous." He said in a sing-song voice, poking her in the side quickly before leading her out the door. "You're the only girl for me Gabi. Plus, that girl is so annoying! She's always in me face throwing herself at me, like last week she practically fell on top of me and wouldn't go away. Now what kind of a guy wants a girl that throws herself on him at every chance she gets? There's no challenge in that." A cheeky grin appeared on his face, as she jokingly hit him across the arm. Still grinning, he kissed her hand, as they walked together, hand in hand.

_End._

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**Author's Note**: So? What do you guys think? Good? Bad? Horrible? Leave me a comment and let me know. Constructive criticism is loved.

The song lyrics Troy sang are from Hoobastank's, "The reason."

Oh! And for those of you who know of agingmousketeer, yes the whole "blond villainous cheerleader" was a little shout out to them.


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